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Delta Air Lines Inc. said Monday that it will take delivery of the first of 18 Boeing 787s in 2020, ending long-running uncertainty over the fate of the order.
The second-largest U.S. carrier by traffic inherited the order when it acquired Northwest Airlines and has been in talks with Boeing Co. about the planes’ fate after protracted delays in the aircraft’s entry into service. Get the full story »
Buoyed by a global rebound in travel, United and Continental airlines flew into the black during their last quarter as independent carriers.
United Continental Holdings Inc., the parent company created by the airlines’ Oct. 1 merger, reported that United’s net income soared to $473 million or $2.12 per share, excluding fuel and merger-related charges during the third quarter. That’s a $533 million improvement from 2009 results. Get the full story »
Tourists pose for photographs in front of "The Bean" in Millennium Park, Jan. 28, 2010. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)
Chicago and New York tourism officials announced Tuesday their first-ever collaborative effort to lure visitors to their respective cities in the dead of winter.
The Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau and the Chicago Office of Tourism joined with NYC & Co., the organization that markets the Big Apple, to secure discounts on American Airline flights between their cities during the traditionally slow post-holiday months. Get the full story »
The JetBlue Airways Corp. flight attendant whose job-quitting meltdown landed him in court avoided jail time in a plea deal Tuesday that requires him to undergo counseling and treatment for a least a year.
From USA Today | A small but growing list of airlines are eliminating or reducing rows in the most expensive part of their aircraft as customers increasingly look for cheaper seats. Get the full story »
Passengers at the Southwest Airlines counter at Midway airport, Sept. 27, 2010. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)
Southwest Airlines is giving its “bag cops” a break.
Southwest has been running a heavy dose of TV commercials boasting that unlike most other airlines it lets passengers check two bags for free.
But the airline said Friday it will launch a new TV commercial designed to boost sales on its Web site. The ad, featuring singing and dancing employees in Chicago, is important to Southwest because its flights don’t appear on online booking websites such as Orbitz and Travelocity. Get the full story »
The strong recovery in air travel is slowing as the force of the economic upswing moderates, with growth in business travel continuing to outpace that in economy class, airline industry association IATA said on Thursday.
The number of passengers travelling in business or first class in August was 9.1 percent higher than a year earlier, against a 13.8 percent year-on-year rise in July, the International Air Transport Association said in its monthly premium traffic monitor. Get the full story »
Mayor Richard Daley said Wednesday he will not push forward with a second attempt to privatize Midway Airport during the remainder this term, which ends next May.
“We’re not going to move on it,” Daley told the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board during a discussion of his proposed 2011 budget. “It will be up to the [next] mayor to make that decision.”
The mayor has pursued the idea as a way to bring a revenue windfall into city coffers, as happened with the outsourcing of parking meters and the long-term lease of the Chicago Skyway. But a proposed deal to lease Midway for 99 years for $2.5 billion fell through last year when the investors could not secure funding. Get the full story »
United Airlines said Wednesday it had gained federal approval to begin daily flights from Los Angeles to Shanghai in little more time than it takes to fly between the two cities.
The speedy review of United’s request, completed a day after the Chicago carrier asked for permission to launch the new China service next year, is in contrast to the lengthy lobbying battles over access to China’s booming market that played out during the 1990s and in the 2000s.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Transportation had needed just six days to approve a request by American Airlines to fly from Los Angeles to Shanghai. Get the full story »
Leading airlines have called on Europe and the United States to cap export credits on the sale of passenger jets at 20 percent in the latest ripple of a growing spat over multi-billion-dollar subsidies.
U.S. and European airlines say their Gulf rivals get subsidies and export credits that allow them to grow at a breakneck pace and take market share. Get the full story »
Like rival American Airlines, United Airlines wants to expand its reach into China and has asked federal officials for permission to begin daily flights from Los Angeles to Shanghai starting in May 2011.
The new service would expand United’s reach in Asia’s booming air travel market, which has rebounded from the recent global recession faster than the U.S. and Europe.
Chicago-based United also seeks to take advantage of additional flights between the U.S. and China that will become available in 2011 under a recent trade agreement that loosened the tightly regulated market for air travel between the two countries. Get the full story »
A higher rate of airline flights departed late from Midway Airport than at any other major U.S. airport over the first eight months of the year, the U.S. Department of Transportation reported Tuesday.
Three flights out of 10 departed Midway at least 15 minutes after their scheduled time to push back from the gate, according to the department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The 71 percent on-time departure record over the period was only slightly better in August, when 74 percent of flights departed Midway on time.
JetBlue Airways Corp. said Monday that its September traffic rose 14.6 percent.
The discount airline said it flew 2.20 billion revenue passenger miles during the month, up from 1.92 billion in the same month a year earlier. A revenue passenger mile is one paying passenger flown one mile. Get the full story »
United Airlines has started moving its operations center employees into a new home — the Willis Tower in Chicago, formerly known as the Sears Tower.
United, which formally combined with Continental on Oct. 1 to form the world’s largest airline, is moving the first 280 employees into the skyscraper on Monday. This is the first phase of the move of more than 2,500 people who currently work at the company’s operations center in the suburb of Elk Grove Village. Get the full story »
U.S. aviation officials are warning air carriers that new research shows lithium batteries are sensitive to heat and can ignite in-flight if transported in cargo compartments that get too hot. Get the full story »
